Welcome to the new Versailles and more!

I have been working very hard these past few months to bring you this new blog, and it is heartening to see at long last the result of these efforts.

Where should I begin? You may notice we now have 7 articles on the home page. I picked some long time favorites, and a few newer posts for this first issue. I went back to old articles, updated them, included more pictures. You will see these “new old” posts as they return to the front page in the coming weeks. and months One of the advantages of this new blog is that I no longer have to worry about loading speed when I wish to illustrate a post.: pictures are now optimized in terms of weight. This means more 18th century paintings for your pleasure, and mine too…

Another major change: look at the categories at the right hand corner of my header: Marie Antoinette, 18th Century Life, At Versailles, French Revolution, Napoléon & Joséphine, Historical Fiction, Art, Books & Films. I invite you to browse them at your leisure, for I have gathered there my favorite articles. Not all of the posts referring to any given topic will be there, mind you. I wished to showcase the ones that seemed the most interesting. If you wish to see ALL posts mentioning the Revolution, for instance, I recommend you use the (now functional!) search engine. Please note that many archived posts are not categorized, because the category list would have become too cumbersome. The search engine is here to help you find those.

Even I was getting lost in the ever growing clutter of my sidebar. Un chat n’y aurait pas retrouvé ses petits, as we say in French. A cat wouldn’t have found her kittens in there… Now you will see that the reorganized blogroll is on a pull-down menu and the list of my recent posts has been moved to the footer of the blog.

If you have any suggestions, please do not hesitate to comment below or email me. I am sure many details will have to be ironed out as we go, but this is a new beginning…

Speaking of new beginnings, spring has arrived after a long and harsh winter. Monsieur Boucher will put us in the mood for this season: